The New Ally
by PixiSquirrel
Summary: There's a new Animorph that isn't human, and Ax has somethin' against them. there's somethin 2 do w/Marco and them 2 . . . (hehehe) this iz my 1st non-insane Animorphs fic!! SO PLEASE REVIEW!!


The New Ally  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This iz my 1st serious fic. sry if they're OOC. (I know Erek iz OOC!!!) Itz easier 4 me 2 write the insane ones. (like, Attack of CrazyPixi and DementedSquirrel) ((yeah, I wrote that 1 w/Emily a.k.a. Squirrel!)) Sooo umm, hope ya like it.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
  
My name is Alexia. I look like a normal human, but I'm not. I thought I was until about a week ago, when my life turned upside down. I live in a normal city with a "normal" family. I can't tell you where because the Yeerks have my friends and I on the America's ten most wanted list.   
  
What are Yeerks you ask? Well, it's a long story but it's worth hearing. Yeerks are parasite slugs; they are the ultimate enemy of every creature in space, even zero-space. You are probably wondering how slugs are huge enemies. The Yeerks can flatten themselves so they can crawl through your ear and take over your body.   
  
By now you probably think I belong in a nuthouse. I don't. Yeerks can take over your every action, word, and emotion. Your memory is like a book that they can read any time they want, and they don't need a page of contents to find something. And the bad thing? You can't do anything to stop them.   
  
Once under their control, you are theirs. Forever. Unless you somehow manage to get away, which I doubt you could do. They kill you if you escape.  
  
Now you know about the Yeerks, and why they are powerful. And now I will tell you my story about my discovery of them, and how I met my new friends. The Animorphs: five kids sort of like me, and an Andalite. And, another alien from a race called the Chee.   
  
Chapter 2  
  
I hurriedly slammed my locker shut and raced down the hall to my science class. I was only meters away from the door when a brown haired boy about five feet tall stopped me. Great, like I need to be any more late than I already am!   
  
"In a hurry, Alexia?" He asked, I guess I had a shocked look on my face because he laughed. "I didn't mean to startle you but you seem in a big hurry." I nodded just as the tardy bell rang.   
  
"There goes my Saturday," I groaned. I had already been late for class five times this quarter, which meant now I had to go to Saturday school.   
  
"No, you don't have to go." I looked at him curiously and made an unsure face. "You see, I need to tell you something that is more important."  
  
"How will I get out of Saturday school? They'll notice I'm missing and notify my parents which will not be a pretty scene when I get home."   
  
"I'll make a hologram of you to go in your place." I got the feeling that he was an escapee from the nuthouse trying to pass as a normal kid. I took a few steps backward. "Well, just so you won't have to go through with lecturing for being late with the teacher, I will show you the hologram now."   
  
There was a sudden flash and I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I saw an exact copy of me walking into the class. My eyes widened and I swear I almost fainted. Before I ever started to speak, there was another flash and when I opened my eyes this time, there was no difference.  
  
"I better introduce myself. My name is Erek. I am from a race called the Chee, created by the Pemalites. I look like a normal human, just like you do." I got really confused then. What did he mean he looked like a normal human like I do? "What you are seeing now is just an outer hologram. I really look like some kind of robot." I decided then that I better sit down. But since there were no chairs, I sat on the floor.   
  
"What do you mean you look like a normal human, like I do?" I asked, hoping it was all just some kind of dream.  
  
"You aren't really human. You are a, well, I guess I could say that you're an alien called a Goltan."   
  
Chapter 3  
  
I guess I must have fainted or something because when I woke up, I was lying on a haystack in some barn.   
  
I sat up and looked around. My head ached and it didn't help when I saw a blue deer with four eyes, a weird looking tail, and what looked like part of a human. I started screaming. It scared the alien and it ran out of the barn. I stopped screaming after it left.   
  
I stood up and walked around the barn. It looked like some kind of animal clinic for wild animals. Some animals looked half dead, some had splints on their wings or paws or whatever they had. Some were just going absolutely nuts running around making noises.   
  
I started to head outside when a hawk flew in and almost hit me. I jumped back and pressed myself against the wall. The hawk landed on a rafter on the ceiling and peered down at me. I slowly made my way toward the door when a tall, blond haired girl walked in. I jumped back, startled.  
  
"So, you are Alexia, huh?" She looked at me and seemed to be studying my clothing. I looked at her strangely.  
  
Yeah, Erek said that he brought her here after she passed out at school. I got here when she was about to leave. I had heard something in my head but then again, I didn't hear it. I looked around to see who was talking. It wasn't the girl because her mouth wasn't moving, and the voice was different. It couldn't be any of the animals because animals couldn't talk.  
  
"Well, good thing you got here in time then, Tobias." The girl walked over to underneath the rafter that the hawk was on and looked up at it. "Cassie had to stay after school for something and Jake and Marco are on their way here now. I don't know about Ax." I knew now that I was going crazy. Either that or the girl was. She was talking to a bird! I blinked a few times and shook my head. I must have hit my head hard.   
  
I saw Ax running out of here like a maniac a few minutes before I reached here. It looked like he had just seen Elfangor and Visser Three playing chess or something. I heard it again! I guess the girl heard it too because she started laughing but then quieted when two other people came in.  
  
"What's so funny Rach?" Asked one, I didn't recognize either of them.   
  
"Don't tell me old bird-boy and Xena are making jokes." The other one looked almost scared when he said that. But he also looked like it was a hilarious situation too.  
  
"No, Tobias just told me how Ax looked when he went running out of here." The girl said, probably Rachel since the one had called her 'Rach'. She laughed again at the thought.  
  
I'm going to see if he's coming back. The bird flew out of the barn and was back within five minutes with the blue deer following. For a minute, I thought I heard a laughing in my mind. He-- laughter. Went running out of here-- more laughter. When Alexia started screaming. Yet more laughter, followed by more laughter from Rachel and the other two boys.   
  
I do not see why it is funny. The girl made a horrible sound and it frightened me. So I left. This time the voice was different.  
  
"Uh, who are you guys, and why do I keep hearing voices in my head?" I demanded. As soon as I spoke, the laughter faded. One by one, everyone looked at me. "What? Why is everyone staring at me?"  
  
"The 'voices' you keep hearing, are Tobias, the hawk up there on the rafters. And Ax, this guy right here." He pointed at the blue deer - Ax. "They talk through thought speak, since they don't have mouths. As you can see."  
  
"But, how can a bird talk? And, what is he? He looks like an experiment of Dr. Frankenstein that went wrong." I commented. Someone laughed.  
  
"Hey, I like her. She has a sense of humor, unlike someone I know here." He pointed toward Rachel and she glared back at him. He ignored it and just grinned.  
  
Who is Dr. Frankenstein? Asked Ax.   
  
"He's a doctor that made Frankenstein." Answered the guy who thought I was funny.  
  
Who is Frankenstein? Asked Ax again, still confused.   
  
"I'll explain later Ax." Said the first guy that talked to me. Then he looked towards me. "Ax is an Andalite. He isn't an experiment of Dr. Frankenstein, as you may have noticed by his not knowing who Dr. F even is." They could all see that I was still confused. "We better tell you who we are."  
  
"Yeah. You might want to do that." I said frustratedly.  
  
"I'm Jake. You probably know who Tobias and Ax are now--"  
  
You may call me Aximili until I know you better. Reminded Ax.  
  
"I'm Rachel and the one in a stupid grin is Marco." Said Rachel. Marco's 'stupid grin' got bigger. "And Cassie will be here in a few minutes. This is her barn that we're in." She continued.   
  
Chapter 4  
  
After a while, Jake and Marco were in an argument about a video game, Tobias, Ax, and Rachel were talking and I was walking around looking in the cages. No one noticed Cassie come in.   
  
"Uh, you guys?" She sounded pretty nervous. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her. She looked around and then focused her eyes on me. Then Ax, then back at me. "Why is Ax like that while . . . she's in here?" You could tell she was getting frustrated that she didn't know what was going on. I know how you feel Cassie.   
  
"Cassie? She's not a controller, she's not even human, according to Erek." Jake explained. Cassie looked at him questioningly then back at me.   
  
"What are you?"   
  
"Honestly, I don't even know what I am. Someone stopped me in the hall at school today, Erek, and told me that I wasn't human. I don't know what happened really after that because I passed out. Now I'm here and still have no clue what's going on. All I know is your names and that the hawk can talk and the blue guy is an alien." I replied. Cassie almost looked relieved that I didn't know exactly what Aximili was.  
  
"Well, is Erek coming to explain to the rest of us about her?"  
  
Erek was supposed to be here awhile ago. Tobias said. Cassie got worried.  
  
"What do you mean? Do you think something happened?"   
  
I'll go look and see if he's even on his way yet. Tobias flew out and Cassie started feeding the animals, still worried.   
  
All of the sudden I felt sort of strange.   
  
FLASH!  
  
I saw an image of a huge area with caged people screaming and a huge pool in the center of the place. There were some wild animals running around attacking some weird looking aliens and there was an Andalite. It was turning into some huge, razor bladed animal.  
  
FLASH!  
  
I was back at the barn. Jake was next to me and everyone was looking at me. I felt hot.  
  
"Are you okay? You were shaking and almost fell over. You looked like you just saw Marco morph a roach or something." Rachel said, Jake handed me a glass of water that Cassie had just brought in for me.  
  
"I-I just saw some weird kind of pool with cages . . ." Ax's tail twitched and I moved back a few inches.   
  
"You saw, a pool with cages?" Rachel asked. She looked at Jake, "she knows about the Yeerk Pool?" I was confused again.  
  
"Yeerk Pool? What the heck is a Yeerk Pool? You know, you guys are way too crazy. You have talking animals, you talk to aliens that also talk, and you talk about alien pools. Are you sure this isn't just some kind of stupid dream that someone will hopefully wake me up from soon?"  
  
"She sounds like me. You know, I always hope it's some dream." Commented Marco. Rachel groaned.  
  
"Oh please, puh-lease don't be like Marco. One stupid person in the Animorph group is enough. We don't need another." Rachel moaned. Marco, as always, ignored her remark. I started feeling strange again.  
  
FLASH!  
  
I was in some abandoned city with giant centipedes chasing me and some other people. When they got close, they were shocked and blown back by something. They kept chasing us and this time, one of us stopped and pointed at the centipede and it disenagrated. None of us were surprised it happened but the other centipedes were. They ran away and we kept running in the same direction.   
  
FLASH!  
  
"Alexia! Alexia! Are you okay? You zoned out again and started shaking too. What did you see this time?" Cassie asked, everyone was getting freaked by my doing this. I told them.   
  
Goltan . . . Ax whispered angrily, if you could call it a whisper. His tail twitched.  
  
"Gol-what?" Marco demanded.   
  
Goltan. Alexia is a Goltan. She is about your age right now, which is also the time that Goltans start getting their powers. They can freeze time, make things disenagrate, and create holograms. A natural enemy of Andalites. Ax explained, anger still in his voice. I started getting scared, having Ax mad at me. I could tell that that tail of his is pretty deadly. I didn't move.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"Natural enemy? Excuse me, did you say, natural enemy?!" Marco and Rachel demanded. Jake might have lost it if Ax didn't start talking again.  
  
The Goltans and Andalites have been enemies since before the Yeerks. They had tried to steal our technology and when we tried to stop them, they fought back and won. They took almost every secret about our technology that had been invented. They have helped the Yeerks before and were their allies until the Yeerks turned against them. The Goltans tried to get the Andalites to help but when we refused, the Goltans lost. We thought all of them had been taken over but I guess some escaped and came to Earth.  
  
Everyone stared at him with their mouths hanging open and eyes almost popping out of their head. I was a natural enemy of him? Or at least my ancestors were?  
  
"You mean, Andalites aren't 'superior' to Goltans? Andalites actually lost a fight? Whoa," Marco said, making a smart remark that made everyone, other than me since I had no clue why he meant, get mad.   
  
"I don't understand, why should you be angry at me since I didn't do anything? Only my, uh, people did. Not me." I was careful of what I said to not make him mad. I was about to say more when Tobias flew back in with Erek behind him. Ax-er, Aximili arched his tail and looked ready to fight.  
  
Relax Ax-Man! It's just me and Erek. What's going on? Tobias said, almost flying into Aximili's tail. Aximili lowered his tail and looked embarrassed. If you could call the look in his eyes embarrassed.  
  
Alexia is a natural enemy of Andalites. When you and Erek came in, it startled me. Aximili explained, Tobias seemed to be a little shocked when Aximili told him about me being a natural enemy. Erek didn't look the least bit surprised.  
  
"I hoped I would get here before Ax-Man figured it out himself. I had a feeling he might attack her once he found out, so I had some of the Chee come out as holograms to keep watch. I couldn't get here earlier because of my father's hologram has been going on and off constantly. Other wise I would have been here earlier." Erek reported, he then did something that shocked me. He seemed to change form into a robot dog kind of creature. None of the others were shocked, I think. At least they didn't look shocked.   
  
He walked over to me and began to look over me, like studying me. After a few minutes he seemed to zone out and look into space. I waved my hand in front of his face.  
  
"Hello? What are you staring at? It's not like I look like some kind of alien like you do, Robot-man." I heard Marco snicker and Erek stopped staring.  
  
"I was searching your ancestor's history." Erek replied. I started to fall over from shock.  
  
"Catch her!" Shouted Rachel, her and Jake caught me just before I hit a row of cages. "Jeez you faint a lot, that's like, the third or fourth time in just a few hours! She better not see us morph." I looked at her with a confused face. See them morph?   
  
"What do you mean 'See us morph'?" I sighed, "just another thing for me to be confused by." Jake and Rachel let go of me and I sat down so if I fell over, it would only be onto some hay. Rachel looked at Jake and Jake looked at Cassie. Cassie then looked at Marco, who looked at Tobias who looked at Aximili and he looked back at Jake.  
  
Well, who's going to explain to Alexia about the morphing? Tobias asked, Jake shook his head.  
  
"No way, this is the one time I'm not going to explain it. I've done enough explaining since we got in the middle of this war," Jake said. War? They were a part of a war?! They were only my age, they weren't even in high school and they were part of a war?!   
  
Chapter 6  
  
"War? Excuse me, did I just hear you say that you were a part of a war?! I think you guys should start explaining this to me. I've gotten confused enough today. I don't want to be confused any more." I demanded. I was getting very frustrated. Probably the most I ever have in my life.   
  
"Okay, okay, I'll explain the Yeerk vs. human war to Rachel the second." Marco said, trying to make a joke of it. It wasn't funny. "You see, we were walking home and decided to take a short-cut through an abandoned construction site and ended up meeting Ax-Man's big brother. Prince Elfangor.  
  
"He had crashed on Earth while fighting Visser Three and he was about to die. He decided, 'Hey, why not endanger the lives of five innocent kids?' so he gave us the power to morph so we could fight the Yeerks. After that, Mr. King Yeerk himself, Visser Three, showed up and ate Elfangor leaving us with nightmares of it for weeks. Even up until now.   
  
"We met Ax when he was sending messages for help. Bird-boy and Cassie heard them and we went to the bottom of the ocean and saved him. We were in so many fights with Visser Three I can't even count. We've gotten into so many bad situations, you don't even want to know what happened. And just recently, we were stuck in the North Pole wearing bike shorts and t-shirts. No coats or shoes either. Now that is what our normal world has turned into." Marco explained. Aximili looked a little mad, probably because Marco was talking about his brother. Tobias seemed to ignore the part when Marco explained about Prince Elfangor being killed, probably bad memories. The others were just acting normal.  
  
"Okay, now I know that part, but what about Tobias? He's a bird. And Erek, is some robot-dog-man. Will you mind explaining them to me?" I was getting less confused now that I knew more about them.  
  
"Tobias stayed in morph for over two hours, the limit to morphing. He's what Andalites call a 'nothlit'. But, a 'non-interfering' race called Ellimists gave him back his morphing. His real body is still a red-tailed hawk but he can go back to his normal, human body. Only for two hours though, of course. Wanna show her Tobias?" Jake explained. "Just try not to pass out, it's a little gross until you get used to it." He added.  
  
Correction: you never get used to it. Tobias added. He flapped down from the rafters and just stood there for a moment. Then, he started to grow. His wings molded into hands and arms and feathers turned into skin. His talons separated and made toes and feet. His beak shrunk into his head and softened to make his mouth. His hawk eyes molded into human eyes. His head feathers went to hair. I had the feeling I needed to throw up just as he finished the morph. I closed my eyes and looked toward the floor. Cassie handed me some more water.   
  
"See? It's sickening and none of us have gotten used to the sight of it. Ax, maybe, the rest of us? No. It still grosses us out, especially when it's a new morph." Tobias said, now human. I could see Rachel meant now, I shouldn't have seen that. It was really disgusting. How could they stand doing that, I'll never know.   
  
"Does it hurt?" I asked hoping I won't have to watch him morph again to prove it doesn't hurt.  
  
"Nope. Doesn't hurt a bit, you can hear your bones either shrinking or dissolving and feel yourself shrink and grow a tail or beak or whatever. But no, it doesn't hurt." Explained Tobias.   
  
I now felt pretty comfortable around them. Now that I knew about all their weirdness' and alien encounters. I felt as if I was one of them, almost. Maybe they will need my help sometime. I could dissolve Visser Three in an instant and the war would be pretty much over! I would be a hero, but then again, they could always get another leader. I guess there would be no point in them . . . Then it hit me. Were they telling me all this so I would help them in their war with the Yeerks? Were they explaining the morphing to me so I could morph? I help up my hand like I was going to ask a question and stood up.  
  
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, are you explaining this all to me, because, you want my help? Or just because I'm just another freakazoid alien." I could tell they weren't sure they knew the exact answer to that. One-by-one, they looked at Jake. Except Aximili, he looked fed up with all this and about ready to leave.   
  
"Well, in a way, yes. And in a way, no." Said Jake, trying to get out of answering my questions.  
  
"Jake, buddy, wouldn't it be better if she did help? I mean, it would make Visser Three confused if he saw seven of us instead of six. He would think another Andalite landed without him knowing." Marco explained, everyone looked a bit shocked he had thought that. He saw their expressions and continued. "Think about it. It would drive him nuts! He would be kicken' the other Yeerks around yelling since they didn't report another landing. Now that would be the thing I would pay for." Cassie giggled and Jake smiled. Rachel just groaned.  
  
"He's not serious again, oh goodie." She said, smiling while she said it. Marco put on another stupid grin. He stood up and held up his hands.  
  
"Attention ladies and gentlemen! Come see Visser Three kick the Yeerks! Only five dollars a person! It's an event you won't want to miss! So see it while you still can!" He shouted, I was laughing along with Erek, Rachel, Jake, and Cassie.   
  
"Was that humor Marco?" Asked a person I haven't seen before.  
  
"Yeah, Ax-man, that was humor." Said Tobias. I looked at the new person. That was Ax? I thought he was an alien!   
  
Chapter 7  
  
"Ah. Hah! Hah hah hah hah! Hah. Hah. Haaaaah." Ax said; pause. "Hah," He added as if to be an afterthought. I, along with everyone else, stared at him. "I was attempting to laugh at your human joke Marco." I could have died laughing right then. I fell over laughing after I heard him 'attempt to laugh' at Marco's joke.   
  
I was lying on the floor covered with hay laughing my brains out. The others looked at me with confused faces. Yet they were also trying not to laugh also. Rachel helped me up and I finally stopped laughing.  
  
"What is so funny? I did not make a joke. I was laughing at Marco's joke. I was not being funny." Ax explained, frustrated.   
  
"Well, Ax, considering you 'attempted' to laugh at my joke, it was pretty funny." Marco said. "People don't 'attempt' to laugh, they just . . . laugh." He continued. Ax still looked confused.  
  
"You don't 'attempt' to laugh at a person's joke, Ax. You either laugh at it because it's funny, or you think it's stupid, like Marco's jokes, and don't laugh at all." Rachel added to make it more clear to Ax, he nodded.  
  
"I see, either a joke is stupid or funny. I do not get human humor so I do not know if it is funny or not." Ax said. He thought for a moment and then added, "Why do you think Marco's jokes are not funny Rachel?" Marco snickered at Rachel while she tried to think of an answer.  
  
"They are so . . . stupid that . . . they are funny." Replied Rachel, looking satisfied with her answer. Marco stopped snickering and rolled his eyes. "You know, Marco, that was supposed to be me rolling my eyes at you not you rolling your eyes at me." Rachel commented.   
  
"Enough you guys, we gotta decide if we should make Alexia another Animorph." Everyone sort of looked away, but Jake continued. "Sure, David was a major mistake. But Alexia isn't being hunted down by the Yeerks yet as far as we know. I say we let her become an Animorph."  
  
"Well all-fearless leader, is it a voting situation then? If it is, I say sure." Marco joked. Ax looked about ready to try and laugh again but Marco caught him. "Oh no Ax, don't laugh again. Yes it was humor but don't laugh okay? It's scary the way you laugh."   
  
"I disagree on this situation. Her race has already stolen all of the other Andalite Technology, we hadn't yet invented the morphing technology when the Goltans invaded; it's the only thing they didn't get. If we gave her this technology, then her race will have all Andalite Technology. I will not vote for it, only against it." Ax explained.   
  
Chapter 8  
  
Everyone looked at him with shocked expressions. I think Marco and Jake were most surprised that Ax had disagreed. I wasn't all that surprised since my race was enemies with his. So I didn't really understand why they were all so shocked.   
  
"What do you mean, you won't vote for it, only against it? This is like, the first time you've ever not gone along with your "Prince Jake's" decision. Are you feeling okay?" Marco questioned. Ax focused all of his four eyes on Marco and Jake.   
  
"I disagreed with Prince Jake because I do not think it is right. Do I not have a right to say what I think? Isn't in your human Bill of Lefts that everyone has the right to free speech? I am only stating what I think is right. It does not necessarily mean that you must think it is right also. In this war, we must do what is safest and right. This, is neither. That is why I disagree with Prince Jake." Ax said, leaving us all in shock from the short speech.   
  
"That's, all very, nice Ax. We know you really don't want Alexia to become an Animorph, but this is our big chance to throw Visser Three off track. When we found you, we threw him off track into thinking another Andalite joined us. Which really happened. But now, we have Alexia to through him off track again. So, whether you like it or not Ax, she's gonna become an Animorph." Jake said, making the final decision. "And, that's Bill of Rights. Not Bill of Lefts." It was then that Erek spoke up after a long time.  
  
"Since she is a Goltan, she might be able to expand the morphing time. It would help a lot if she could." The other stared at him leaving me confused again.   
  
Chapter 9  
  
"You mean, she can expand the time limit?! How come she can't do it for us too?! It would help us out big time if she could. Because remember when I was almost stuck a roach back there in that building with the big meeting that turned out to be a trap from Visser Three?" Marco shouted, the others nodded remembering whatever he was talking about.   
  
"Because you already have the morphing technique. She doesn't. Also her being a Goltan, she can expand it since she doesn't have it yet." Erek explained. Marco groaned and sat down on a pile of hay.   
  
Cassie then ran out of the barn and came back in not even a minute later holding a blue box type thing. She handed it to Jake who placed my hand on one side. Jake took Ax's hand and placed it on another part of the box. Ax started to pull away but Jake kept his hand in place. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Jake.  
  
"What's this thing for? It doesn't look all that important for anything." I said.  
  
"This is how you get the morphing. It's what we all used to get it the first time." Explained Jake. I looked at the blue morphing box and shrugged.   
  
After a moment, I felt a small shock, like when you rub your shoes along the carpet then touch something and get a little shock. It didn't hurt, just felt a little strange. I pulled my hand away after Jake said it was done.  
  
"That's it? That was like, nothing. I didn't feel anything but a little shock and I don't feel any different." I said, frustrated once again.   
  
Jake sighed. "Yeah, that's it. Now, you can acquire the DNA pattern of any animal and morph it. We don't take the DNA from any people unless we have their permission." I looked around the barn making sort of a clue that I wanted to morph something. "Well, before you morph anything, we have to explain the, well, rules of morphing." I looked at him. Rules of morphing? "You guys? Explain."  
  
"Well, you can't stay in one morph for over two hours. Other wise, you'll be stuck in that morph forever. Sure, Tobias was lucky and got to morph again but you might not be so lucky." Cassie explained. Then Rachel started talking.  
  
"And, you can only wear skin tight clothing. Other wise, you morph right out of it. It took us a while to finally figure that out but we got it." Rachel said, sort of pointing out that Tobias wasn't wearing normal clothing. "Not exactly fashionable but it works," she continued.   
  
Next it was Marco's turn. "So what we got do is find you some morph-wear. You have any bike shorts? Leotard? Something?"   
  
"Yeah, I have this shirt that I used from a few months ago before I quit gymnastics and I have some bike shorts." I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rachel get a small smile when I mentioned gymnastics. I looked at her. "You take gymnastics or something?"  
  
Marco's turn again. "Yeah, and she even morphs a cat on the balance beam and scores a perfect ten." His stupid grin returned. Rachel just elbowed him in the stomach making him jerk forward a bit. The grin got smaller but stayed there. Once again, Erek finally stepped forward again to mention a fact.  
  
"Well, now that she has the power to morph, she can acquire an animal and during that time, expand the morphing time." Erek walked over to a cage and brought out some kind of a bird. When he brought it over to me, he spoke again. "Now, touch it and think about the animal. During that part of the process, think of the number 240. In other words, four hours." I saw Marco and Rachel's jaw drop. "You might feel a bit dizzy after acquiring but then you'll feel fine and the process is done." The others seemed to be a little in shock that I could get it to four hours.   
  
"Wait, how come they can't think of 240 while acquiring since I can?" I questioned, hoping the others will know I was trying to make it work for them too.  
  
"They have already learned to acquire in their way. Once you learn one way, it's not possible to learn the way you know. Even if they tried, it cannot be done." Erek added, the others let out a sigh and just looked around the room like they were getting bored with this. "Do the process."  
  
Chapter 10  
  
I placed my hand on the back of the bird and started thinking about it and 240. I felt another little shock and let go of the hawk. I realized that I wasn't dizzy. Why? Did it work right?  
  
"I don't know if it worked, you said I would be a little dizzy after 'acquiring' the animal." I said, Erek started staring at me again. "Now what, are you searching my history again or something?"  
  
He came out of the daze. "Yes. I think I know why it might not have worked right. Your mother was not a Goltan, but your father was. It will not work unless both parents are Goltans." I was shocked, yet somehow relieved.  
  
There were a few sighs of relief. I gave the others a quick glare and looked back at Erek. "So . . . you're saying that since I'm not totally Goltan, it won't work?"  
  
He hesitated for a moment. "Well, it could work. Maybe you just didn't feel the dizziness because of not being entirely Goltan. Try morphing." I nodded and took a step back.   
  
Right when I was about to start, Marco stepped in front of me. "Wait a minute, what about morphing clothes? That COULD be a problem when she demorphs." I had forgotten about them mentioning 'morph-wear'.   
  
"Wait, you forgot to mention one fact. Why do we need skintight clothing when we morph?"   
  
"Well, if you didn't wear them, then you would demorph right out of your ordinary clothes. And we won't want that to happen if you know what I mean." Marco explained. I groaned, now I couldn't morph until I changed clothes. Cassie noticed the groan.  
  
"You could use mine, to try out the morphing." Thank you Cassie! I smiled and nodded. "Okay, I'll be right back." She smiled and walked out of the barn. I was still smiling until Ax decided to ruin the moment for me.  
  
"I do not see why we must give her the morphing technology." I rolled my eyes. What, was he like, programmed to hate me?  
  
"Relax Ax-man, we understand that you really don't like Goltans but she's one of us now. Don't you like seeing Visser Three go nuts because another 'Andalite Bandit' joined the group?" Marco asked, coming to my rescue from Ax. Ax was about to reply but Jake also came to my rescue.  
  
"Ax, you've been in human morph for a while now. You too Tobias, you guys better demorph." Ax and Tobias nodded and demorph. Tobias back to the talking hawk and Ax back to the mutilated deer. I nodded at Jake to let him know I was glad he defended me. He nodded back and looked at the door of the barn. Cassie was standing there holding black bike shorts and a neon green leotard.   
  
"Here," she said as she handed them to me. "Jake, Marco, Tobias, and Ax will turn around while you go behind some cages and change. When your done, come on out and we'll explain it from there." I nodded and went behind some cages. Cassie made the guys go on the complete opposite side of the barn and face the wall.   
  
Why are we facing this wall Prince Jake? Asked Ax, confused. I couldn't help but giggle, Cassie and Rachel did too.  
  
"So we don't see Alexia, Ax, I'm not going to explain it now." Marco explained and rolled his eyes. Ax still looked confused but nodded and faced the wall.  
  
I changed into the morphing outfit and came out. I placed my other clothes on an empty cage and waited for them to explain. Rachel started explaining how to think about the animal and how I shouldn't have my eyes open while I morph for the first time. And to NEVER watch myself in a mirror while I morph. She talked a little fast but I think I understood everything she said because after a few minutes, I was ready to morph.  
  
I stepped back and the others just stood there and watched. I felt like I was about to tell a speech in English class and I started getting nervous. Marco made a smart remark about my face getting red from nervousness. Rachel gave him a dirty look and he quieted.   
  
I took a deep breath and started morphing.  
  
Chapter 11  
  
The first change I felt was the shrinking. I could feel my bones crunching and twisting to the eagle's shape. "WHOA!" I shouted as the floor came up and almost hit my face. I stopped shrinking right when it was just inches away.  
  
"This is too weird." I said, except since my beak was forming, it came out as: "Dis is oo eerd." I made the mistake of keeping my eyes open and looked at my feet, or what was left of them. They looked like they had been molded over a rock and sand papered. My toenails looked like short little pencil tips and were growing longer and wider.   
  
I had already lost my arms, they had molded into wings. But they looked so cool with the feather pattern painted onto my arm and growing.   
  
I saw my mouth/beak grow out and my eyes were moved a bit to the sides. I heard a bit more crunching, felt a few more changes in my mouth and feet, and I was finally done.  
  
The feeling of being an eagle was unbelievably cool. I flapped my wings and I saw a mouse in a cage move around. "Prey," I thought, I somewhat flew over to the cage and tried to get it open. Must get prey! I started screeching and felt hands grab me. NO! I must get the prey! Get off of me! I shouted and kept trying to get at the mouse that had completely lost it trying to get away.  
  
"Alexia! Alexia! Listen to me! You are a human named Alexia! You must get control of the eagle! Can you hear me Alexia? Gain control of the eagle!" I looked into the human eyes. Yes, I was human!   
  
Okay! Okay! I'm okay now, I think. Yeah, I'm okay, I have control now. It was so weird, it was like having two minds at the same time except both wanted more control so they were battling for power over one body.  
  
"I'm not letting go of you until we're sure you have control." Marco said, making sure I understood that. "Just uh . . . don't scratch me up any more than I already am okay?" I looked at his arms and hands, they had a lot of scratches that were bleeding. I looked away from the arms, my eagle eyes were so strong that when I looked at the arms, it looked like the blood on them was covering my own eyes.   
  
I have control now, I want to be let go, the blood on your arms is making me sick. Marco practically dropped me in fear of being thrown up on. Rachel giggled and I demorphed. It felt good to be human again, not the eagle that was hungry and wanted mouse meat.   
  
"Okay, that was a little sick. But the eyesight was great! I could see the smallest details, except for when I saw Marco's blood. That was really sick." I exclaimed, giddy from the morphing although it made me tired.   
  
"Try being in a few dozen battles when Marco's bleeding. It's worse when he makes jokes about it. Believe me, you don't want it to happen. I've lived through it." Rachel commented, grinning. Marco just grinned back and it ended up as a grinning contest.  
  
"Okay you guys, it's getting late. I have to leave, you know how my mom is about family dinners." Jake said, looking at his watch. "Great, better go by air. Marco, will you take my clothes and toss them through my bedroom window on your way home?" He nodded and Jake took off his outer clothing to reveal his morphing outfit. I sighed, now I'll probably have to wear these kinds of clothes under my regular clothes everyday for quite a few years.  
  
After Jake, Marco, Tobias, and Ax left, I changed back into my other clothes and gave the morphing outfit back to Cassie. "Thanks, Cassie, you guys are great."   
  
"No problem. If Erek would never have told us-" She stopped short and looked around. "Rachel? Where did Erek go? I haven't seen him since Alexia was about to morph the first time." I looked around too, where did he go? Could Chee disappear too? Chee? How did I know that Erek was a Chee?   
  
FLASH!  
  
I was under water in some kind of ship shaped like a dog. I was typing something into a computer when another person came up behind me and told me to stop before I let all the water come in and destroy the Andalites staying in the ship. I stopped and went back to playing a game with a small dog.  
  
FLASH!   
  
Rachel and Cassie were next to me when I stopped having flashbacks. I told them what had happened that time and they looked at each other, exchanging thoughts with facial expressions. "No way." Rachel whispered, "she can't know about that . . . can she?" I explained to them about my sudden knowing that Erek was a Chee. Cassie turned white.   
  
Cassie turned to me. "Have you somehow met the Ellimist yet?" I shook my head, I had no clue what an Ellimist even was. "Oh, okay. We thought the Ellimist had somehow shown you the Chee's ship."   
  
"How about we discuss that later? It's getting too late and we have a big test tomorrow." Rachel said, glancing at her watch. Cassie and I nodded in agreement. It was getting late and I was going to be in trouble if I didn't get home.   
  
"See you guys at school. Bye Rachel, Alexia." Cassie walked out of the barn and into her house. Rachel and I left a few moments after.  
  
Chapter 12  
  
BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG! Rang the bell to end 7th hour. I ran out of the room to my locker. I grabbed my backpack and jacket and rushed out of the school.   
  
I was planning on going to the public pool today and wanted to get there before it opened. That way I would have a lot of time to slow down and be first in line.   
  
A few minutes later, I arrived at the pool. The people at the front of the lines waited for some people to come and pay for their way in. I went up to the desks and handed them 5$. Once they had the money I was in the locker room putting my things into a locker.   
  
I got outside to the pool; about three other people were swimming around. I set my towel on a lawn chair and went to the diving boards. There was no one in line. Perfect. The board was a bit slippery but that was okay, just more of a challenge to dive. I dove off it without slipping. When I surfaced, my goggles had slipped off my head to the bottom of the pool.   
  
"Darn goggles, I have to get some new ones." I muttered to myself. I surfaced dived back under, just barely able to reach the goggles before I ran out of air, I grabbed them and was about to surface. But I was already in an area with air.   
  
Underwater.   
  
That was impossible, there's no air underwater!   
  
I turned around to face the pool wall. There was a doorknob sticking out from it. The water didn't come through this area so I stuck my hand out. I felt water, but when my hand came back, no water came in. There were a few people swimming above me, yet didn't notice me. Even the ones wearing goggles and looking straight down.   
  
FLASH!  
  
Marco, Jake, and Erek were in a park talking. Erek did something and a hologram went around them making them look like cops just chatting. Marco suddenly came out of a cop and made a lady scream and run off.  
  
FLASH!  
  
I shook my head and opened the door. Then I thought different, maybe I should tell the Animorphs. This might be something they would like to know about. After shutting the door, I put back on my goggles and surfaced.   
  
Chapter 13  
  
"So what you're saying is that there's some kind of hologram at the bottom of the public pool?" asked Jake. It was later that day and we were all in Cassie's barn. I had just told them about what had happened at the pool. All of them seemed kind of shocked.   
  
Ax, who was in his human morph, wasn't paying attention. He was trying to figure out why a squirrel kept throwing hay out of its cage. It was funny though. The squirrel would throw the hay out and Ax would shove it back in. And it would keep repeating.   
  
"Sooo, Ax. What do you think we should do?" asked Marco. Ax snapped his head up and blinked. Marco shook his head. "I said, what do you think we should do about this hologram thing in the public pool? Should we just let the Yeerks turn loose in the pool and capture people while their swimming?" Rachel groaned and looked sick by the thought.   
  
"It might be a new kind of entrance that the Yeerks are using. It is possible to have a hologram under water and keep the water pressure out." Ax explained, then going back to the squirrel and the hay.   
  
Jake nodded. "I say we go down and check it out. If it's a Yeerk pool entrance, than we'll wait till the weekend and attack."   
  
"Let's do it," Rachel said, right on cue. Marco rolled his eyes and groaned.  
  
"Don't you ever learn that each time you say that, you put a curse on us and we nearly die?" She just laughed and nodded. Jake stood up and looked at his watch . . . again.  
  
"If we're gonna check it out, we better go now. Tobias, you'll have to morph human, go under, then demorph. Ax, the same for you. The rest of us will just go normally."   
  
"Jake, that's impossible. Marco can't go normally. He'll have to demorph to his little green Martian form first." Rachel teased, although she knew that aliens weren't little green men from Mars anymore.   
  
"Whatever, let's just go." We all morphed our bird morphs and took off towards the public pool.   
  
Chapter 14  
  
Once we reached the pool, it was packed already. It was a good thing that Ax and Tobias were already in morph so they didn't need to morph again until we got down into the hologram.   
  
I lead them over to where I had dropped my goggles and jumped in. the rest followed. Except for Marco and Ax, Marco couldn't swim and Ax didn't know what to do. Rachel tossed them both goggles so they could see their way down. Jake and Cassie helped them; Marco joked by saying that Jake was a lifegaurd saving him.   
  
We dove down and headed down to where the hologram was. I kept going down and down. I stopped when I hit the bottom with my hands. I opened an eye, no water stinging it. I stood up inside the hologram. The others joined me; Ax seemed very confused from the swimming.   
  
While Ax and Tobias demorphed, Jake went over the plan. Everyone but me was supposed to morph flies and I was to pretend to be a human controller. I looked away while they morphed; I knew it was going to be disgusting. Once they were done, they got into my hair (which felt funny) and I opened the door.   
  
Once the door was opened, I could hear the screams for help. The sound of the screaming made me feel sick.  
  
FLASH!  
  
People were in cages screaming. A Hork-Bajir came over, unlocked a cage, and brought them to a pier. They shoved the struggling human's head into the water and when the head came back up, they were perfectly calm.   
  
FLASH!  
  
Alexia? Did you stop? Keep going! Commanded Marco, I shook my head slightly and walked forward. As I went down the stairs, the screams got louder and more ear piercing. I could hear cages being opened and slammed shut. Or even locked shut.   
  
I couldn't stand the sound of the screams, it was overwhelmingly sad. To know that once you were taken out of the cage, you were to become a controller again. With no control over your own body for another three days.   
  
Oh great, I can hear the joyful sounds of the people now. Said Rachel sarcastically. I knew by the tone of her voice that she had been there before; and didn't enjoy it.   
  
Just keep going; we can see how many people are down here before we decide to attack and let all these people float up into the pool. Explained Jake. I kept walking, trying my best to look normal. Which I wasn't doing well.   
  
Oh no, Cassie? Did you bring Alexia to the Gardens to get some morphs yet? asked Rachel, adding a last minute question to worry us all.   
  
Cassie hesitated before answering. No, I haven't yet. We haven't had time to. Marco groaned.  
  
We never have time for anything anymore. Do you know how many times I've had to ditch my dad when we were about to do something? It's getting sick! All the lying I've had to do to him! We all went silent. I haven't lied to my parents yet. Yet. The word scared me. I would have to start lying and breaking dates with my parents too. I've never done it in my life. Until now. After thirteen years, I have to start lying to my parents. We reached the bottom of the Yeerk Pool. I looked around for a place to let the others demorph. There was a closet a few feet away to my right so I went inside of it; trying not to be suspicious. Yeah, sure, walking into a closet and shutting it while inside doesn't look one bit suspicious Alexia. Great move.   
  
"You guys can demorph, we're inside a closet. A somewhat large closet." I reported, pulling a string that turned on the light. The others were already out of my hair and demorphing. One of them, I'm not sure who, landed on the ceiling. Cassie was the first to come the closest to human. The closet was filled with things like guns. I picked one up. "Whoa, what's this? An alien gun?"  
  
"Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Now leave it alone, if it goes off we're in trouble." Cassie said as soon as she had her mouth back. I nodded and set it down.   
  
The one on the ceiling turned out to be Marco. He fell as soon as he grew to about 5 inches.  
  
AAAHHH! Why didn't you- He got cut off for some reason. He hit the floor with a THUD. Cassie was the first one finished. The others finished a few seconds later. Marco stood up rubbing his head. "Why didn't someone tell me I was on the ceiling?!" He asked, frustrated. I giggled.  
  
"I was about to tell you but I thought you new. How bad are fly eyes anyway?" I asked.  
  
Bad. Compared to these eyes, I might as well be blind. Tobias commented. He was used to the magnified hawk eyes.   
  
"Enough you guys, let's check this place out." Jake said, looking around the small closet that we were all cramped into. It had seemed larger when there was just me and flies. He opened a few boxes and pulled out some work jackets. He tossed them to us. Tobias's landed on top of him like a tent that collapsed. "Here you guys, wear these. It'll make us look more like we belong here." Then he noticed Tobias under the 'tent'. "Sorry Tobias," he picked up the coat and set it on a box while Tobias morphed to human.  
  
It's okay. I'm small. Hawks are small. Not like- He stopped, realizing he was babbling. I giggled and Jake gave me a look to be quiet and I stopped. Tobias finished morphing and put the coat on. I looked around, we looked hilarious. We were a bunch of teenagers wearing coats that were way too big, no shoes, and hats that covered our faces.   
  
"Now this doesn't look too strange," commented Rachel. She groaned, picking at the coats and hats. After rolling up the sleeves of the coat some and putting her hair up into the hat, the outfit didn't look that bad; except for the fact that she wasn't wearing shoes and was wearing a leotard under the huge coat. She caught the eyes of everyone else staring at her. "Well, at least it looks like it actually fits me." She nodded to me and I helped her get everyone else's coat and hat look better.  
  
Chapter 15  
  
After about 15 minutes, we looked much better. Marco started looking around for boots. He found some, and when he put one on, there was a squishing noise. "AAAHHH!" He took off the boot and threw it away from him. A bunch of slugs in a kind of liquid spilled out of the boot onto the floor.  
  
"Eww, there's like, slugs in there!" I looked at the slugs on the floor, and poked at one with my foot. Ax's face got a familiar look on it. I recognized it from the way he looked at me the first time he realized what I was.   
  
"Yeerks. I always wanted to kill them while they were helpless. Now I have my chance." Rachel smiled and stepped forward, stepping onto a Yeerk. It made a gross mushy noise, like spaghetti being squashed with fingers. Jake picked one up with a disgusted look on his face.   
  
"Yuck. And the voluntary hosts actually let these things go into their head? Sick." He looked around for something to put it in. He found a box full of tons of little oatmeal packages. He tossed the Yeerk in. We all grabbed more boots, and dumped their contents into the box of oatmeal. Why they had oatmeal in the Yeerk Pool, I don't know.   
  
"Prince Jake," Ax spoke up. "I suggest that we get on with this mission. Tobias and I have limited time as humans." Jake nodded, and we walked out of the closet. This time, we were all human, had coats, hats, and boots on, and looked a little more in place.   
  
There were cages of people all over the place. It looked like a prison with a built-in, nasty looking pool in the middle. But, when you saw the Hork-Bajir and other weird looking aliens everywhere, it didn't look at all like a human prison. It looked more like an intergalactic prison with human tourists that got locked up too. Many human tourists. I looked around, taking advantage of the moment to find people I knew.   
  
I guess I wasn't watching where I was going, because when I stopped looking around, the others weren't near me. I searched the area around me for them; I didn't find them. I looked for the first obvious thing: the dull yellow construction coat. But while I looked for that, I found myself looking for Marco too. I shook my head to make myself stop. Find Jake, he's the one you should find Alexia. The leader, find the leader. I saw a few people wearing the coats, but it wasn't them. Then I saw an Andalite. Ax. But why an Andalite? I though he was in morph.   
  
I looked right at him, hoping he'd notice me. I was starting to walk over to him when I felt someone grab my shoulder. I spun around to see Rachel.  
  
"Rachel! Where did you guys go? I saw Ax over there, and I was gonna ask him." After I said that, I realized I said the wrong thing. Rachel's eyes went wide, and she pulled me over to the side.  
  
"Girl, you have a lot to learn still. Lesson number one: That Andalite is our biggest enemy. That is Visser Three! He's the leader of the invasion on Earth. Here's an easy way to tell the difference between Ax and another Andalite: Ax is smaller. He's younger, smaller, and his tail blade. It's smaller than the older Andalites'." I nodded; trying to remember what she said for when I needed to know it at some other time. "Anyway, Marco, Jake and Cassie are over by the pier acting like there's a problem with the water. Tobias is walking around with a notepad and pen, taking notes on what there is down here. Ax is following him; probably hoping to find some food down here."   
  
A few minutes later, we all met back around the closet.  
  
"Okay, you guys, there's too many people here to do this attack in the middle of the afternoon when the pool is still open." Jake glanced behind him, then continued. "We'll have to come back later tonight or in a few days. That way, we have time to plan something, and Alexia can get a battle morph. Got it?" We all nodded.  
  
Once we had found a place to put the jackets, boots, and hats away to, one by one we went up the stairs and out of the pool so we wouldn't look suspicious. We changed into our regular clothes, and went home for the night.  
  
Chapter 16  
  
We went the rest of the week, hardly even noticing each other in the halls at school. I liked it; it was a rest from all the confusion that I had had at the beginning of the week.   
  
Then it came to the day we were going back. After school, Cassie had brought me to the Gardens to get some morphs. I decided on a Bald Eagle for the bird, and a leopard for battle. Then, she had me acquire a roach and a fly, which I thought were utterly disgusting. Once I had my morphs, we met the others at the pool.  
  
"Okay, everyone ready?" Jake asked, sitting at the edge of the pool. We all nodded.  
  
"I'm ready, except I won't be a wimp and slide in like the rest of you." Marco announced, running to the edge of the diving board. Rachel came up behind him and pushed him in. On the way down, he screamed like a girl.  
  
"Yeah, so, I guess we're the wimps now, since we didn't scream like girls?" I asked. I had slid in and was now treading water. Marco splashed me and Jake helped him swim down to the door. We all followed. We did the same as before. They all morphed flies and I walked down into the closet. On my way to the closet, I noticed that there weren't as many people here as before.   
  
Once inside and demorphed, we morphed into battle morphs one by one, being let out by someone still human. Marco was the last out, since he could open the door still.   
  
We walked cautiously walked around the closet door. We could all tell that something didn't feel right. A weird spiked alien walked by, and barely acknowledged us.   
  
FLASH!  
  
I was reading a book, and the word Hork-Bajir appeared big and bold across the pages.  
  
FLASH!  
  
She's doing it again, how can we make her stop? Ax? I heard Rachel's voice.  
  
There is nothing we can do to stop her from doing this. Ax replied.   
  
I'm okay, I just saw that thing walk by, and I saw the word Hork-Bajir printed all over a book I was reading. I paused, is that what that thing was? A Hork-Bajir?  
  
Yeah, their whole race is taken by the Yeerks. Except, we were able to save a few, and now there's a colony of them hidden in a valley. Protected from the Yeerks. Jake said, hinting in his voice that we shouldn't stay in this spot for too long. We moved on, and once we started seeing empty cages, we turned around. But, we found a big surprise when we did.  
  
Chapter 17  
  
Well, well, well. What do we have here? A new Andalite member, I see? Visser Three looked at a few Hork-Bajir standing beside him with a threatening look. I am quite surprised we didn't notice your landing. He stepped forward, and looked over us carefully. Well, new Andalite, let this be your first, and final battle with your little friends. As he said those few words, he began to grow rapidly into a snakelike thing.   
  
He started growing spikes that looked like fangs along his entire body. His blue fur turned into a dark orange, with streaks of black across it. The weird thing other than the fangs all over, was that he still had legs. Only, they were much thicker now. And, the end of his tail had an even bigger deadly blade on it.  
  
Do you like it? It is my newest morph from the Nerowld planet. It is called a Thersew. It is very powerful and deadly . . . just the way I like it. Best of all: it gives you a slow, painful, death. STRIKE! He lunged forward at Ax, just missing him.  
  
FWAP! Ax struck his deadly tail, but missed the Visser.   
  
We can't beat him when he has fangs like that! We gotta get out of here! Marco screamed at us. Jake nodded slightly, and we ran. Visser Three wasn't far behind us. We were almost to the stairs, when he struck again.  
  
STRIKE! This time, he got Marco with his deadly tail blade.   
  
AAAAAHHHH!!! Marco screamed, his voice echoing in my head, making my head pound.   
  
MARCO! I ran to him. Get on my back, I can support your weight.  
  
Are you KIDDING?! GET OUT OF HERE! He struggled to get up, and started slowly making it toward the others. His back was bleeding badly, and one of his legs was almost torn off. He started slowing down even more.  
  
NO! I turned around to face Visser Three. The other Animorphs ran back to help Marco.  
  
Alexia, don't! Get out of here! Cassie yelled.   
  
No, Visser Three can't keep beating you guys! I lunged at Visser Three, landing on his neck. One of the spikes when through my front paw. I screamed.  
  
Oh my God that HURTS you freak! I growled, and sunk my teeth into Visser Three's neck.   
  
Pitiful Andalite! He swung his neck back, then forward, throwing me off, and hitting a wall. I saw his head coming toward me with his mouth open, then it went black.   
  
Chapter 18  
  
I woke up to see water all around me.   
  
"Alexia . . . come on, demorph!" I heard a voice, but I couldn't tell whose it was. I heard a few others, saying "Demorph." I didn't understand what they were saying. I tried lifting my hand, and saw that it was covered in fur and it was huge.  
  
AAHH! Then I remembered that I was in morph. I remembered what 'demorph' meant. I started focusing on what I looked like.  
  
My head began to shape into my human head, and my hair started growing out from it.  
  
My hands and arms shrunk into my normal size, and the skin came back.  
  
Eventually, I was completely human again.  
  
I sat up, tired. The others were standing around me; they looked tired, and relieved. Rachel and Cassie helped me up, and we swam to the surface.  
  
"That was close . . . " Jake sighed.   
  
None of us talked as we walked back to our houses. Cassie left first, then Rachel, then Jake. Aximili and Tobias went ahead of us to the forest. Marco and I were the last two.   
  
"Marco, what happened down there?" I tried to avoid eye contact with him. He hesitated before answering.  
  
"You went insane, and attacked Visser Three . . . to save me." I looked at him. His face turned slightly red, and he was looking at the ground. "The others got you out of there before Visser Three could take a bite out of you." He stopped walking and looked at me. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, I was afraid for you. Afraid that you would die, or not be able to demorph . . . because there's something about you that I like." I could feel myself blush. I glanced to the side, and was a little disappointed that we were in front of my house.   
  
"There's something about you that I like too." I grinned. "Even though you are probably the strangest person I know. Not everyone is friends with people who turn into animals, and helps save the world from aliens." We both said goodbye, and I went inside up to my room.  
  
"My life is never going to be the same . . . " I sighed, and fell asleep in my bed.  
  
THE-END 


End file.
